It’s January Movie Month! For the month of January I watched a movie that was new to me every single day. The movies could be new or old, theater releases to straight to streaming, domestic or foreign, anything as long as it was my first time seeing the movie.
I first did this a few years ago and it started mostly by accident, I found myself about 3 or 4 days into the month and I had unintentionally been doing it already so I just decided to continue. It’s a good excuse for me to catch up on some movies I never got around to, or fit in some Oscar movies, or just to watch some weird random stuff.
I wanted to write a little bit looking at what I watched. All of the info in here is taken from my log at Letterboxd
Best Movies
I had 5 movies rated at 4.5 stars (out of 5):
Barbie (January 7th) – Just a great movie, way better and says more then what I would’ve expected a big movie about the doll would have been. I’m impressed Gerwig was able to make the movie what it was and every in it played their parts perfectly.
Speed Racer (January 13th) – I truly can’t believe I had not seen this movie until now, talk about a movie ahead of its time. The CG generally holds up and makes the CG in a lot of more modern movies look awful. The driving action was pretty outstanding, the thing that stuck out the most to me was that despite the absurdity of it you could always tell what was going on in those action scenes. I feel like in the hands of worse directors the action would’ve been a muddled mess.
Stalker (January 20th) – This is one I should probably watch again, but it was amazing the first time. I’d always heard about it and have played the games that is is loosely based on but it was way more then I expected.
The Holdovers (January 24th) – A very easy but nice watch. Paul Giamatti is made for roles like this and is just outstanding in it. I also liked the stuff around the movie like the trailer and the credits and such all playing like it was from the 70s, that really added to the feel of what the movie was going for.
What We Left Behind: Looking Back At Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (January 26th) – Deep Space Nine just hits different from all other Star Trek and it might ultimately be my favorite series. It was just really nice to see everyone from the show, actors, writers, and everyone in between, be able to talk about the show and what making it was like. It also reaffirms that Avery Brooks is by far the coolest person to ever work on any Star Trek.
Worst Movies
I had 2 movies rated at 2 stars, and another 3 rated at 2.5 stars:
Higher Power (January 2nd) 2 Stars – I had to look up what this one was about to remember, it was early and bad. The special effects are pretty bad, which for a low budget thing isn’t surprising, but it made it hard to understand what was going on. A scientist effectively creates Dr. Manhattan so he can save the world, but they don’t tell him that and keep torturing him to make him more powerful. Then right before he’s supposed to save the Earth they kill the only reason he would have to save the Earth, just a really badly put together movie.
Parole Violators (January 17th) 2 Stars – The main character starts the movie kicking everyone’s ass and then at some point everyone kicks his ass the rest of the movie. The acting is really bad as well. There are a few places that step into so-bad-its-good territory, but it doesn’t maintain enough of that to be the case for the whole movie.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire (January 8th) 2.5 stars – Oof, I apparently don’t value my time very much because I watched this movie. Zach Snyder trying to make Seven Samurai in space but just constantly missing the mark. You’d think with it being Snyder it would at least have some impressive visuals but nothing impressed me about it, space should be more interesting. The movie also makes me question if Sofia Butella has any idea how to act at all, she is so utterly bad in it.
Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar (January 14th) 2.5 Stars – Dumb straight to streaming type of movie, starts out kind of strong that it might be big and campy and fun, but doesn’t maintain it.
Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Raine (January 31st) 2.5 Stars – Another dumb straight to streaming movie, just not that interesting. Casper Van Dien as a swashbuckling space rogue could work, just in a movie that’s more fun and interesting. The writer/director/producer is also in the movie as a secondary character that seems like he should obviously be a secret bad guy but ends up just being friends with the good guys, presumably so he can be in a sequel as well.
Other Stats
Some other info from the movies I watched:
I liked 24 of the 31 movies I watched. I’m not sure that says much about the quality of the movies because I can find fun things about a lot of different movies.
The average rating I gave movies was a 3.5. Breakdown of ratings were:
- 4.5 – 5 movies
- 4.0 – 7 movies
- 3.5 – 7 movies
- 3.0 – 7 movies
- 2.5 – 3 movies
- 2.0 – 2 movies
The oldest movie was Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto from 1955 and the newest was Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire from 2023. There was at least one movie from every decade starting in the 1950s.
The longest movie I watched was Stalker at 162 minutes, the shortest was Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay at 73 minutes.
Final Thoughts
I really like doing this every year, it gives me a chance to potentially catch up on some movies I’ve wanted to watch and a chance to search out weird movies that would maybe I’d like.
I find it easiest to stick to movies right around 90 minutes during the week and watch the longer movies on the weekend. When I’m looking for a movie to watch I would find myself focusing a lot of run time and adding stuff that looked just kind of interesting to my backlog so I had some stuff to grab and watch easily if I wanted.
Oscar nominations also come out during the month so it’s a good excuse to watch some of those to add them to the list.
Come February 1st it is always a bit of a relief that I don’t have to find time for a movie, but I’ll definitely do this again next year. I briefly thought about the idea of trying to just keep maintaining it for as long as I could through the year, but I think one month is good for now.
Below is the full list of movies I watched
| Date | Movie | Rating | Liked |
| 1/1 | Blue Beetle | 3.5 | Yes |
| 1/2 | Higher Power | 2 | No |
| 1/3 | The Dead Zone | 4 | Yes |
| 1/4 | Maniac Cop | 3.5 | Yes |
| 1/5 | Milli Vanilli | 4 | Yes |
| 1/6 | Battle Girl: The Living Dead in Tokyo Bay | 3 | No |
| 1/7 | Barbie | 4.5 | Yes |
| 1/8 | Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire | 3.5 | No |
| 1/9 | C.B. Hustlers | 3 | Yes |
| 1/10 | Come Drink WIth Me | 3.5 | Yes |
| 1/11 | The Menu | 4 | Yes |
| 1/12 | Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway | 3 | Yes |
| 1/13 | Speed Racer | 4.5 | Yes |
| 1/14 | Space Wars: Quest for the Deepstar | 2.5 | No |
| 1/15 | Better Off Dead… | 4 | Yes |
| 1/16 | The Cheap Detective | 3 | Yes |
| 1/17 | Parole Violators | 2 | No |
| 1/18 | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | 3 | No |
| 1/19 | Fit to Kill | 3 | Yes |
| 1/20 | Stalker | 4.5 | Yes |
| 1/21 | Conan the Barbarian | 4 | Yes |
| 1/22 | Justice League Dark: Apokolips War | 3.5 | Yes |
| 1/23 | Vibes | 3 | Yes |
| 1/24 | The Holdovers | 4.5 | Yes |
| 1/25 | Constantine: The House of Mystery | 3.5 | Yes |
| 1/26 | What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 4.5 | Yes |
| 1/27 | Shamus | 3.5 | Yes |
| 1/28 | The Creator | 4 | Yes |
| 1/29 | The Barbarians | 3.5 | Yes |
| 1/30 | Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto | 4 | Yes |
| 1/31 | Star Raiders: The Adventures of Saber Raine | 2.5 | No |